Paris

There are some amazing shots of cats in this book, more so, even, than of dogs in Conrad's "Les Chiens de Paris". (I would assume it's more difficult to pose a cat than a dog.) However, there is also a bit of filler here, which wasn't true of the dog volume, possibly due to a smaller pool of eligible photos. Still, these cats are in rain gutters, atop pay phones, chasing mice along yardsticks, peeking over sheet music, performing in a street circus, tucked into a man's four-foot beard.

The pictures are adorable and innocent, but watch out. Conrad's witty introduction contains some racy passages (about the she-cat's sexual prowess, and a neutered tom's suicide) that might make some think twice about giving it to (literate) children. (If "Chiens" is G, "Chats" is PG-13.) For the urban adult ailurophile, however, this is the perfect gift.

This book is a must have for anyone who has ever fallen in love with the Louvre. The photos are incredible, with many panoramic views as well as detailed shots. Finding books on the works of art contained *in* the Louvre is easy, but this is the best book I've seen on the fantastic artwork that is the buildings, rooms, and courtyards of the Louvre itself.

I also loved the historical info on the Louvre provided by the text. Simple staircases I have walked down a number of times suddenly have rich meaning and context for me now. And I appreciated the focus on all parts of the Louvre complex. There's info on the more popular, touristy parts of the Louvre, like the pyramids and Denon, but also details on the more out-of-the way spots tucked away in Sully or elsewhere.

The only problems I found with the book are that the historical info at times assumes that the reader knows quite about about French history. If your history is lacking in a certain period, the text can be a bit hard to follow. I also would have appreciated maps and floorplans of the Louvre to remind me where each area being discussed is and how it relates to the other areas.

Still, reading through this book is the next best thing to actually being in the Louvre.

This is a small, beautiful portrait of two young people in love during the Parisian student protests of 1968. The author's juxtaposition of the lovers' human, emotional connection admidst the larger national (and international) issues of freedom and justice is done with subtlety and grace. It is a great sketch of one small section of life that speaks to all human experience.

I bought this book weeks ago and I must say I knew NOTHING whatsoever about the Law School Admissions Test. After reading this book, I have learned many of its basic components and also the question types presented per section. This book is very informative about the test structure, which is crucial. The techniques offered here are of great value. The downside you may be wondering? Why only 4 stars? Well, they really need to provide more practice sets along with each section-test and also more practice on the Logic Games section (Analytical Reasoning). My score was not very high to begin with, but after reading this book, I have increased my score almost 10 points on my second practice test alone. The book definitely informs you to the point where FEAR becomes irrelevant in the test taking process. I highly recommend this book, IN ADDITION to a few other practice tests that you could get your hands on. You will very likely see improvements. PRACTICE IS KEY.

Goldberg writes a fast easy read similar to Sheldon, whom I just love. Very interesting topic, gets you going, but the end leaves something to be desired. Too cliche.

Georges Simenon, that most prolific of writers, strikes literary gold once again with this charming "policier." Maigret finds a seemingly unimportant homeless man on the dark streets of Paris. The man and his story are more important than we think, however. The plot is intriguing, the character studies are astute, and the language is elegant. I highly recommend this short detective novel.

A more accurate translation of the original might be 'Maigret defends himself', and in this late, autumnal Simenon, we find a hero three years away from retirement, a man who should be lounging on the laurels of a remarkably successful career, accused of getting the orphaned teenage niece of an important state official drunk and taking her to a cheap hotel. There is no real mystery or ambiguity in such a scenario - the idea of a lecherous Maigret is about as plausible as Sherlock Holmes in a Santa suit. As ever with Simenon, the interest is psychological, and Maigret's near-breakdown is superbly conveyed, in the fragmented and delayed way the accusation is given to the reader, disorienting us as much as the detective; and in the way Maigret looks at the world, the interrogator now interrogted, decades of integrity and achievement counting for nothing. There is a brilliant scene after Maigret has been condescendingly accused by an upstart Chief Commissioner in a large, unfamiliar, anonymous office; the sense of literal and spiritual depletion he feels in this silent, cavernous building opens out onto the heightened colour and noise of the streets as he leaves.

'Defensive' is a classic study of middle-age; of the generational conflicts that take place in any large organisation, when the old methods are despised by arrogant young bucks; of the touching, unspoken, nearly-sentimental companionship of trusted old (male) colleagues; of the moral ambiguity of a law-enforcement so dependent on informers; of Paris in broiling summer, devoid of inane romanticism. The most endearing thing about Maigret, alone among the great detectives, is his serene, bourgeois domesticsity, and the moral support given by the wonderful Mme. Maigret may not win many feminist admirers, but is touching nonetheless. A lesser writer might have contrasted this normality with the vicious sexuality that poisons the world outside, and nearly destroys the Superintendent, but both Simenon and Maigret are defined by their tolerance and understanding. Mystery-wise, 'Defensive' seems as slack and shambling as a middle-aged inebriate, and hopelessly old-fashioned for 1964; it is actually as rigorously constructed and thematically thoughtful as we expect from this great writer.

The author describes what a family entrepreneur needs to know in order to run a successful family business. The autor also highlights three major management functions - communication, cooperation and control for a family business owner such as how to evaluate relatives in a family business. It is practical and valuable because small family business owners may not know how to handle such situations effectively. After reading this book, it helps me to understand how to manage my family business practically. In the last two chapters the author also address the problems of succession and retirement that I haven't thought before. Anyway, I recommend this book to those people to plan or just started his or her small family business.

The book "Marie- Mystery at the Paris Ballet" is about true friendship. Marie has always wanted to dance with the famous Paris Opera. Her dreams come true but Maria spends so much time at the opera and with her American friend Prudence that her friendship between her best friend Joelle is torn apart. It's not much better at the opera house. She is the youngest dancer and is teased daily by the older ballerinas. When a terrible crime happens, Marie is the one blamed. Will she find the culprit or be kicked out of the Paris Opera?

"It is as important to talk about marriages as to talk about the national election."

This quotation from Phyllis Rose, referred to in one of the eleven articles of volume six of the journal Spring, devoted to marriage, resonates through the entire issue in an astonishing variety of ways.

From publisher James Hillman's own reflections on "Marriage, Intimacy, Freedom" to Ginette Paris' "If You Invite the Gods Into Your Marriage" to C.L. Sebrell's "Marry the Gardener!" the importance of marriage to the individual soul, the immediate community and society as a whole is exhaustively but entertainingly discussed.

Perhaps the best, and certainly the most delightful, piece in this collection is Sebrell's, which not only re-visions our understanding of the Greek god Priapos, bringing our attention back to the Greek view of him as a careful and talented lover and not just as a glorified satyr, but also uses this examination of Priapos, also the god of gardens, to drive home the point that the best and happiest marriages occur when two people who are already whole come together, seeking in marriage not salvation or completeness, but a life of shared tenderness and esthetic and erotic pleasure.

Helen Henley's "What Can We Ask of Marriage?" reiterates this point: "A conscious relationship must always presuppose two individuals able to make a committment to a meaningful life together," and "Its achievement is both an art and a discipline."

Full disclosure time: I, your humble reviewer, have never been married. But I arose from a marriage, one whose partners are still joined, and I live in a society that still in some sense values marriage, still sees it as a subject worth examining in film and song and dry political debate. Much of these examinations have proven pointless, dull, fruitless, seeking only to point a finger of blame for what is wrong about marriage.

In 1996, the editors of Spring chose to point out what is still right, still possible, and also to ask why marriage still matters, still obsesses us, still happens in the 20th century and beyond.

And in the process, they have made even unmarried free agents like myself take a look at this most basic of institutions and say to it "Yes, it is important to talk about."